Lubartów, August 2019
How Much Does a Referendum Cost?
Anyone who has a vague idea of public finance and budget structure in the local government knows that it is obligatory to create the so-called general reserve for contingencies.
In the budget for 2019, councilors voted its amount at PLN 130,000.00. The same person knows that if these funds are not used, they will not "be lost" - the budget for the next year is simply constructed. It is also a response to an argument such as - we will not have enough to add to something. This is what the budget is for, because it is exactly the PLAN of revenues and expenses, revenues and expenses PLUS assumption of known and unknown, i.e. specific reserves (e.g. civic budget, crisis management) and general reserve.
We described the procedure for adopting the budget on the website lubartow.mamprawowiedziec.pl in the articles entitled "Self-government without secrets". We see the need for further education in this field and we will come back to the topic soon.
Meanwhile, regarding and contrary to the publicly announced theses, verified by us with the answer of the City Hall, we would like to inform you that spending on the referendum in the amount of about PLN 66 thousand will return to the inhabitants of Lubartów in the form of diets.
As for the costs of the referendum, the Mayor of the City wrote to us that "no funds were provided for the organization of the referendum in the budget of the City of Lubartów for 2019". It does not surprise us. We also did not anticipate that such a situation would happen less than a year after the elections.
And such circumstances of nature are served by the budget item - the general reserve.
According to the office, for the referendum we will spend PLN 65,888.00 from the municipal coffers, not, as opponents of the referendum manipulate 170 000 - 200 000.
We will see how consistent these estimates will be, in any case the money will primarily go to the wallets of the residents of Lubartów, members of the commission. How many specifically? The same as for members of election commissions, that is:
- for chairmen of precinct election commissions - PLN 500
- for deputy chairmen of precinct election commissions - PLN 400
- for members of precinct election commissions - PLN 350.
After exceeding the required turnout threshold, new elections will be announced. Which, like other elections, are financed by the State Treasury, as referred to in Art. 191 of the Election Code.
And the majority of funds from which - just like from the city - will go to the inhabitants in the form of diets for members of the Commission. In 2018, this is exactly what:
Division 751 - Offices of the highest organs of power, control and protection of the law and judiciary
The planned subsidy from the state budget for the implementation of current tasks in the field of government administration and other tasks entrusted to municipalities was PLN 186,921.00, during 2018 a subsidy of PLN 181,569.80 was received for:
Plan Execution
- head offices authorities - update of the list of voters 4,470.00 4,470.00
- elections to municipal councils, poviats and sejmiks of voivodeships, village heads, ... 182,451.00 177,099.80
The amount of 200 thousand. PLN, i.e. 177,099.80 mainly for the remuneration of members of the election committees from the funds coming from - Attention! (this remark is also for educational purposes for councilors) - once again: from subsidies from the state budget for the implementation of current tasks in the field of government administration and other tasks assigned to communes.
Not. This is not a waste of resources for us. This is democracy spending.